System and apparatus for refining oil



C. B. FORWARD SYSTEM AND APPARATUS FOR REFINING OIL Original Filed Jan. 9,

1919 s Sheets- $heet 1 .FoRwnRD.

Oct. 28 1924. 1,513,384

c. B. FORWARD SYSTEM AND APPARATUS FOR REFINING OIL Original Filed Jan. 9, 1919 3 Sheets-Sheet 2 Gasakhe Qw Oct. 28' 1924.

c. B. FORWARD SYSTEM AND APPARATUS FOR REFININGOIL OriginalFiled Jan. 9, 1919 3 Sheets-Sheet 3 INVENTOR.

41 133B FUHWAEZZ ?{W W M m CHA'UNCEY BLAIR FORWARD, OF 'UEBANA, OHIO.

SYSTEM AND APPARATUS FOR REFINING OIL.

Original application filed January 9, 1919, Serial No. 270,408. Divided and this apptlication filed February 15, 1919. Serial No. 277,140.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that CHAUNCEY BLAIR Fon- WARD, a citizen of the United States, residing at Urbana, in the county of Champaigne and State of Ohio, has invented certain new and useful Improvements in a System and superheaters to promote separation of the oil to the highest degree and with a maximum of economy in operations. In addition the system and apparatus is capable of refining oil economlcally in a large commercial way, either as a skimming plant for refining merely the highest percentage of gasoline or motor fuel oil from a given hydrocarbon oil, or as a fractional distilling plant capable of refining crude oils-from different fields, and adaptable to the production of various kinds of distillates on demand. I

In the accompanying drawings, Fig. l/is a plan view of a refining plant constructed according to my invention, and Fig. 2 is a section of the building and a side view of the installation shown in Fig.1. Fig. 3 is an enlarged view in section of a set of oil heaters, a primary separator, and a pair of fractional separators having water spraying connections.

As shown the installation comprises a steam boiler 2 capable of furnishing a continuous supply of steam at high temperatures and pressures and having a stack 3 for the flue gases or hot Waste products of combustion. A supply pipe 4. from a pump adapted to feed oil continuously under any desired pressure, connects with a coil of pipe 5 located within the flue gas passage 6' in or at the bottom of thestack 3, and in practice this coil is located suificiently distant from the combustion chamber of the boiler or furnace so that the flames cannot come into contact with the pipe to. cause overheating or spot heating and the coking or carbomzing of the oil and fouling of the pipes. The discharge end of heating coil 5 connects with a main pipe or header 7 extendin transversely of the building which houses t e apparatus, and the heated oil is sub-divided and delivered by a series of branch pipes 8 .to separate sets of oil heaters in which the steam from boiler 2 is utilized to heat each separate stream of oil to higher temperatures before delivering the same into separate closed vessels to ether with superheated steam. Thus eac set of, oil heaters and complementary vessel comprises a cylinder 10 containing a coil of pipe of great length to which branch pipe 8 is connected, a second cylinder 11 containing a second long coil of pipe which is connected to the discharge end of the first heating coil in cylinder 10 by a pipe 12, a third cylinder 13 containing a third long coil. of pipe connected to the discharge end of the second coil in the second cylinder 11 by a pipe 14, and the closed vessel 15 into which the heated oil is discharged by way of an atomizer or injector 16 and a-pipe 17 connected with the discharge end of the third coil in the third cylinder 13, see Fig. 3. In this way the oil is passed successivel through the three heating cylinders until it is discharged into vessel 15, preferably with superheated steam supplied to atomizer or injector 16 through a pipe 18 connected to the third cylinder 13 and which receives a continuous supply of superheated steam from the main supply pipe 19 having connection with the main superheater 20 in the boiler room, see Fig. 1. The third oil heater 13 in each battery is supplied with superheated steam from the main superheater, and the second heater 11 in the firstbattery is likewise supplied with superheated steam from the main superheater, while all the remaining oil heaters are supplied with the steam which is discharged under ressure from the second cylinder 11 in the rst battery. However, repeated steps of superheating the discharge steam must be taken prelimmary to delivering such steam to the second and first cylinders of the several batteries successively, and for this purpose I use a number of auxiliary superheaters 21 located in theboiler room and having heating coils connected in tandem with the second and first oil heaters of the re ective batteries as described. Tracing this ow of steam and beginning with the second cylinder 11 in the first battery, the steam is dis charged from said cylinder into the first cylinder 10 by a pipe 22 and from cylinder 10 by way of pipe 23 to the heating coil in the first auxiliary superheater 21, thence by way of pipe 4 to the heating coil in the second cylinder of the second battery, thence by 1pipe 25 to the coil in the-first cylinder of e second battery, thence to the second auxiliary superheater, and so on tothe end and to the last cylinder in the series wherev a discharge pipe 26 conveys the exhaust steam to an exhaust pipe or a feedcwater heater 27 or other apparatus. The steam from boiler 2 is thus used repeatedly under the original boiler pressure to heat the several streams of oil gradually to higher temperatures until each is discharged into its respective vessel 15 together with superheated steam delivered direct from the main superheater, thereby effecting volatilization of the oil in each vessel in a greater or less degree dependent upon the speed of travel of the oil through the separate lines of pipe and as regulated at the pump. In skimming operations where a large percentage of gasoline or motor fuel and a greater output of such product per day is desired, the oil may be pumped through the system rapidly and'a large amount of oil treated in a day, but where a number of difierent fractional distillates of the heavier ends of the oil requiring higher temperatures for separation are desired in a continuous running of the systemythe rate of flow of the oil would be slower and a lesser amount of oil would be treated in a day.

To eflect such varied results, each battery also comprises a series of fractional separator, or condensers and in the present showing each battery has five such separators, 28, 29, 30, 31. and 32, respectively, connected in tandem by pipes 33 leading from the top of the first to the bottom of the second and so likewise from the second to the third and so on to the last separator in line, and each. vessel 15 has a discharge pipe 34: at its top which conveys the volatile products therein under pressure to the bottom of the first clarifying separator 28 in the battery to which it belongs. Thence the flow of the volatile product is upward through separater 28 and into: the bottom of the second separator 29 by way of the connecting pipe 33 and so on to. the end or top of the last separator 32 where a discharge of the volatileproduct is effected through a pipe 35 leading to a worm or pipe condenser 36 of suflicient size and capacity to serve for the several batteries, and wherein the volatile product is converted to a liquid and delivered as such (still under pressure) to a suitable container 37 adapted to separate the Water from the oil distillate, and which distillate may be gasoline or motor fuel oil. To

aeraese control the temperatures in the various separators, l spray the rising vapors with a predetermined amount of water in one or more of such separators, and the precipitate t0- ge-ther with the water may be drawn off from the bottom of the separator or separators so employed.

However, by regulating and measuring the amount of Water so used in one or more of the fractional separators and fixing the rapidity of flow of the oil through any given battery, the temperatures in the system may be varied and one or more of the separators used to produce a distillate of any gravity or kind according to the demand or call on the refiner, and any number of combinations may be realized by proper manipulation and operation of the system and apparatus. Spraying of the water may be omltted in one or more of the separators and the distillates modified accordingly either in number, quality or quantity.

The precipitated water and distillate in each fractional separator is delivered under pressure to a cooling coil 39 and thence while still under pressure to a tail-house Where it is discharged into a suitable receiver -40 adapted to separate the Water and distillate. The fractional separators in each battery are each so connected, and the corresponding separators in the different batteries are preferably connected by a head er so as to discharge through a single cool ing coil 39 and to a common receiver 40. However, the liquid discharged from each clarifying separator is retarded in its flow by a reducing valve -4t1 so that more or less of the liquid may be trapped in a well 42- at the bottom of each separator. A. glass sight gauge 43 indicates at all times the amount of liquid retarded in each well to maintain a predetermined working pressure in the system, and a similar trap or well 44:-- with'a sight gauge and reducing valve is provided at the bottom of the primary separator or vessel 15 to maintain the pressure in the system and permit the residue from that source to be carried off by a pipe 45 to a suitable tank 46- locat-' ed more or less remote therefrom. The spray pipe 47 in the upper end of each clarifying separator connects with a water supply pipe common to all the separators, but the flow of water through each spray pipe is controlled independently by valves 48 and each also has a water meter 49 therein to indicate at sight the amount of water passing therethrough.

Now returning to the matter of heating the oil in its initial stages of flow, I have also arranged to utilize the flue gases from the main and auxiliary steam superheaters where such a proceeding may prove beneficial, especially as in passing the oil through the pipes more rapidly in a given operation than in another. Thus, the main super-heater and the auxiliary superheaters have separate discharge pipes leadingto a common discharge pipe :30 opening into the stack hotli below and above the oil heating coil therein, and suitable dampers 51 and 52 dii'e'cf the discharge of such flue gases'to the coils or alternatively to bypass them around the coils.

This system and apparatus is capable of being used in various ways. but is more particularl v adapted to facilitate the steps of refining oil set forth in my parent application filed on the 9th day'o'f January, 1919. Serial Xumher 270,408, of which this application is a division.

CHAUNCEY BLAIR FORWARD. 

